Talk:The Nursery/@comment-8522232-20150118201953/@comment-96.244.77.218-20150120020300
Hmm, he may have his own agenda, but I think he and Oz have worked a plan out. What we are seeing now, I think, is part of the result of their 'deal' - though we still haven't found out exactly what that is. Jack doesn't really have anything else besides this 'deal' that he could be hiding up his sleeve to trick us with anymore. Jack's nature isn't, after all, just pointlessly be contrary to ruin people for fun. He's not Isla Yura - and perhaps this contrast is the reason why Isla Yura was written into the story in the first place. Jack's self-serving and, worse, self-deluted, but not intentionally malevolent, and especially not for no reason. He'll be malevolent, certainly, but only really if he sees you as 'in his way' when it comes to completing his goals. And now I have a feeling Oz's and Jack's goals have intersected (though, again, we haven't been told what they've agreed upon) and so Jack is now cooperating with Oz, because he is self-serving that is what is most beneficial to him. The tides of the story have now again shifted. Jack was an antagonist for a story arc, just like the Headhunter, and the Baskervilles, and now the Core. Hell, if you really want to throw yourself for a loop, just remember that for years the Baskervilles probably saw themselves as a plucky team of heroic do-gooders with Oz as the antagonist. But in each of these cases, an argument has been presented that shows them as - perhaps not entirely good - but certainly not as evil as they're initially depicted, either. Living, sentient beings are complicated, and Mochizuki Jun is very, very good at portraying this realistically despite the inherent fantastical elements of her story. Living beings have ambitions and loves and hates and hopes and fears and goals and we have to balance and prioritize all of these things inside our heads properly or we'll drive ourselves insane. And many characters have been at that precarious balancing place between sane and not at different points in the story - either finally diving off the edge or managing to pull themselves back. Each character in Pandora Hearts has goals, desires, and each person must find out, in the end, what it is they need to prioritize - what it is that they 'are not willing to compromise on.' Jack's had many goals. His most apparent goal is 'to be with Lacie.' But perhaps a goal he will never admit to is 'to prove that he is real.' Oz no longer feels the need to prove this, but it is a problem that Jack has, ironically enough, let define his existence, and one that Jack must surpass psychologically on his own if he is to ever get better at anything. And perhaps that is where Oz and he intersect, somehow. Perhaps that is why Jack is now, once again and perhaps for the last time, taking center stage on his way out. (Wow, I did not mean for this to turn into an essay).